Thoughts on Elders as Shepherds

This is the way it works in most churches. The preacher is the one up front sharing a message from God’s word. You may have an elder make announcements, endorse the message, or lead a prayer. Larger congregations often have the full-time ministry staff do all the public speaking.

So when someone has a problem or needs spiritual help, the first person they think of is the preacher. Especially if he is called the pastor. Sheep go to the shepherd.

And the senior minister or the youth minister or the children’s minister become exhausted. They have their regular ministry responsibilities and then they have to deal with the spiritual problems and crises that arise.

Until they realize they cannot do it all. Frustrated and burnt out, they cannot do it. Even worse, they find out that some members in crisis will not come to them. Everyone does not respond to the same person. Some don’t like an individual minister’s style (even if nine out of 10 do) or the minister’s personality don’t fit everyone.

But what about elders? Aren’t they supposed to be the pastors?

Here is where the problem begins.

Many elders are frustrated because all they do is act as a board of directors. Instead of being in the lives of their flock, they’re spending time in meeting after meeting, making decisions about building issues, budgets, admin issues, staff initiatives, and personnel decisions.

On a side note: this is ironic for those of us who have been in ministry a long time. Some can remember when the big frustration from ministers was that elders did not seem to want to do pastoral shepherding. They seemed content to be decision makers on the sidelines.

No more.

That is not really what many elders signed up for, and it is not really how it looks in the Bible. Scripture has much more about flock care than decision making.

It may be true that people won’t go to the elders. But that is fixable.

Start by recognizing the elders more. Encourage people to go to them. Have an elder give the invitation. Let the church hear them say “come to us.” When members do approach the preacher for spiritual counseling, take them to the elders.

Having multiple elders provides a better chance that all your members will know and connect to at least one of them.

Preachers, you have to believe it, too. You have to relinquish the power. If you do, you may not know everything that is going on with everyone. You certainly will not be in control of everything. And you have to trust the elders to do the job of shepherding. You may even think that the elders will not do a good job if not guided and instructed by you. Let it go.

I know that some elders talk about wanting to be shepherds, but not really. They like leading from the rear, passing down decisions, or serving as a board. Shepherding means late nights and inconvenient phone calls. Elders may have to change their functional job description.

For many elders, it is easy to let the full-time workers handle everything, not the volunteers. Which may be why the New Testament says very little about full-time ministers and more about paid elders.

But you have to decide who the shepherds are, and then live by it.